Yorktown: A Time to Heal
| Fan Film | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Yorktown: A Time to Heal |
| Creator: | Stan Woo & Da Han & John Atkin |
| Date: | 1985-2022 |
| Length: | 23 mins. |
| Medium: | video, web episode |
| Genre: | science fiction |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| URL: | Yorktown: A Time to Heal |
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Yorktown: A Time to Heal is a Star Trek fan film.
Story
Having escaped capture by the Klingons; a damaged Starfleet reconnaissance probe crashes undetected on the planet Pahl III. Captain Bradley Frame along with Hikaru Sulu, serving as first officer on the retrofitted USS Yorktown, are sent by Admiral Heihacero Nogura to lead a secret mission to help locate the missing spy drone. During this unscheduled top secret meeting at Starfleet HQ, Frame is provided with explicit orders to conceal its existence so as to prevent a catastrophic war from igniting with the Klingons. With the unexpected mission now hurriedly underway, The USS Yorktown, races against time to quickly find and retrieve the lost drone. Meanwhile, an extremist terrorist group using the acronym S.H.A.R.K. inadvertently pick-up starfleet communication chatter around Pahl lll and ultimately the drone's location. They plot to steal the device, and after a skirmish with an unexpected inhabitant, they plan to use it for their own nefarious means.[1]
Development
Yorktown: A Time to Heal was, for several decades, an incomplete fan film (episode). Jem Ong Woo partially financed the episode, and served as one of the Executive Producers. His son, Stan Woo, served as a co-producer along with Da Han who was also the original director. The story depicts events occurring between Star Trek: The Original Series and the feature film franchise. It was intended to be a sequel to Yorktown: In Temporary Command, an award-winning amateur entry in the 1984 Hollywood Teenage Film & Video Festival.[2]
Production
Production on A Time to Heal began in 1985, with George Takei reprising his role as Hikaru Sulu and veteran actor James Shigeta, on short notice, to play the Admiral Nogura, a character first described in Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The first photos of this, then-ambitious, fan venture featured in a 1987 issue of Starlog, showing TV-style Starfleet uniforms with additional elements suggesting a transition to the later movie uniforms.[3] Andrew Probert joined the team in mid-production (Spring 1986) and designed some vessels: a retrofitted USS Yorktown, the S.H.A.R.K. vessel Nagear and a Klingon K-Fighter. Actor George Lazenby was originally cast to play a different admiral, but became unavailable, so the part was renamed and repurposed to suit James Shigeta.[4]
In September 2010, John Atkin joined the resurrected production as a Supervising Producer, and put together a group of professional volunteers to digitally update the existing filmed elements; and then complete a version for public release. In 2013, it was explained that "the film is now being remastered from the original stock with new footage being shot to be added to the final cut and John [Atkin] discusses how the old Super 8 footage will be matched to the new scenes..."[5] Some 1985 additional planetside footage of Sulu was repurposed, with added CGI enabling the character to appear as if a participant in scenes, filmed decades later, on the bridge.
Since 2015, additional VFX have been provided by a team of who's who in the fanfilmaking world, including Tobias Richter, Roland Baron, Samuel Cockings, Michael Struckand and Henry Gibbens among others. The unused Vulcan character of Xon, originally to have been a regular in Roddenberry's Star Trek: Phase II TV series, before it morphed into ST:TMP, was added to the storyline. Additional filming of new scenes shot in HDV were meshed with the original Super 8 footage in 2011, under the guidance of John Atkin. In 2013, missing starship bridge sequences were filmed with a second unit crew in Oklahoma City, and were directed by John F. Carroll. In 2015, new interior scenes were filmed in Ticonderoga, New York, on the fan-built USS Enterprise sets owned by Phase II/New Voyages. In 2017, additional pick-up shots were filmed in Los Angeles.[6]
The project has an official Facebook page.[7] A teaser trailer was first circulated in 2013. [8] Click here to view teaser trailer. A final trailer was released on Vimeo in July 2020 - Click here to view.
Release
The film was released online on April 5th, 2022 (also known as 'First Contact Day') to overwhelmingly positive reaction from critics and fandom worldwide .[9]
Achievements
To date the film has over 120,000 views on YouTube alone, and has won over 20 awards including Best Fan Film at The 2022 Trekzone Fan Film Awards .[10]
Main Cast
- Admiral Heihachiro Nogura, played by James Shigeta
- Lieutenant Commander Hikaru Sulu, played by George Takei
- Captain Bradley Frame, played by J. J. Silvia
- Lieutenant Jeffrey Pond, played by Stan Woo
- Lieutenant Commander Evan Foster, played by John Atkin
- Felton Finius, played by Wil Rodriguez
- Lieutenant Xon, played by Jesse Tebbs [11]
Supporting Material
A dedicated discussion, Yorktown: A Time to Heal - Official thread for the Sulu fan film is on TrekBBS at https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/yorktown-a-time-to-heal-official-thread-for-the-sulu-fan-film.143042/ [12]
Fan Comments and Reviews
Gallery
Opening title, 2020
Performance by James Shigeta as Admiral Nogura, 1985
George Takei (far right) as Sulu with the landing party, 1985
The bridge of the USS Yorktown (set borrowed from Exeter Studio)
USS Yorktown in orbit
Jesse Tebbs (far left) as Lieutenant Xon
References
- ^ Star Trek Expanded Universe wiki (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ Star Trek Expanded Universe wiki (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ Starlog magazine, #119, June 1987
- ^ Star Trek Expanded Universe wiki (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ trekspeak interview with John Atkin, 6 March 2013 (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ Star Trek Expanded Universe wiki (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ Yorktown Facebook Group (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ Yorktown: A Time to Heal (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ Yorktown: A Time to Heal on YouTube (Accessed 5 April 2022)
- ^ Trekzone awards on YouTube (Accessed 8 June 2022)
- ^ IMDb (Accessed 15 July 2020)
- ^ TrekBBS (Accessed 9 January 2021)